07 June 2006

Blogging As A Rabbinical Student

Undergoing a pondering of my blog's existence (blogontology), I started considering my blog in terms of my being a rabbinical student, in terms of trying to figure out a voice, a direction, and purpose. I realized, aside from the relative youth of the blogosphere (and, for that matter, the JBlogosphere), that there weren't many examples or paradigms for rabbinical student bloggers, though there are a small number of rabbis (or at least people who have semikhah) who have blogs. I suppose the (J)blogosphere isn't a place where many rabbis and rabbinical students frequent tremendously. Unfortunately, this leads to it seeming somewhat foreign (I imagine) to many rabbis. Additionally, I even receive some flak for blogging, in addition to blogging catching flak from my fellow students as well as from the faculty at school (and we're supposed to be "open orthodox"). This is unfortunate, but I think that with some more knowledge of the blogosphere, one can take it more seriously (and I will hopefully be denigrated less).
Fortunately, at this year's RCA's annual convention in May, presented on What a Rabbi Needs to Know About Blogs. Rabbi Student did, in my mind, an important thing with bringing this topic to the fore to this rabbinical gathering. He notes two important reasons why a rabbi should care about blogs (not that there are only two reasons): because it is changing the way information flows and because it opens up windows into the community. AddeRabbi added that one can do a lot of teaching of Torah than one may do otherwise. I would also like to put forward that due to the greater ease of putting out ideas to the world, one can more easily spread words of Torah. Additionally, following what goes on in the JBlogosphere, one can be involved in Torah discussions, as well as what's going on in the Jewish world (current events).
I haven't totally figured out my voice on the blog vis-á-vis my being a rabbinical student.
Oh, and btw, if one wanted to check out other rabbinical students' blogs, one would be hard-pressed: Ben has one, LabRab has one, but that's about it, unless someone knows of more. Of course, there are over a half-dozen rabbi blogs (of which, I have now devoted a section of my blogroll). Oh, yeah, I should probably say (hey, better late than never) that all of the above was in regard to orthodox rabbis, etc., though there are also non-orthodox, as well.
-------------
Tags: , , , ,

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

well, mine was a rabbinical student's blog until a few months ago... :)

rabbi neil fleischmann said...

I can't prove it, but I think that blogging can be a good thing. If you think there are few rabbi or semicha student blogs, check out how few rabbi/poet blogs there are.

I say, keep up your efforts.